


Time Is Of The Essence (Or Something Like That)

by AllJokesAside



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, American Football, Attempt at Humor, Crack, Eremin - Freeform, Fake Science, Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, High School, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romantic Comedy, Time Travel, jearmin but not really
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 14:40:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11382285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllJokesAside/pseuds/AllJokesAside
Summary: That awkward moment when your future-self shows up to hook you up with your best friend.Because, feelings.“Let me back this up,” He says, eyes closed, face intent. “I’m you, and I’m from the future. And I’m here to fix up our shitty life, alright? You ought to be thankful because boy, is it shitty.”





	Time Is Of The Essence (Or Something Like That)

* * *

 

 

“Psst!”

Eren lurched from his bed, head snapping around to take in his empty room. There’s drool on his chin but there are more important things to worry about. He tries, desperately, to come to the terms with the fact that he might just be crazy as he finds not another soul in his presence. As he slaps his cheeks, trying to fully awaken from the nap he hadn’t realized he’d been taking (So much for studying), he hears it again.

“You _weirdo_ , I’m talking to _you_!”

Now Eren is freaking out. He stands, knocking his Algebra book to the floor, the thud causing his mother to shout something unintelligible from the kitchen below. He throws himself to the carpet, peering under his bed. Nothing unusual is there, a pair of old sandals are squished between his bed post and the wall, a dirty old novel is open, face down, pages bent. He sneezes and tries to remember to vacuum later. No offense to the bunnies, but the dust was getting out of hand.

“For fuck’s sakes, you- “a grunt, “-are no help. Ma was right.”

Eren sticks his head out from the closet he was peeking into and finds ten fingers, one set of hands, wrapped around his windowsill. He cautiously pulls up the blinds he broke when he tossed a football through to Armin (For science.) and peers over. There’s a knitted cap atop a mop of dark hair there and Eren wonders if this is the stupidest robber he’s ever seen or an escapee from the mental facility down by Borough Park.

Maybe he ought to call the police.

“Hello, are you going to let me die? What the fuck. Pull me up!”

Eren doesn’t want anyone to die. Robber, crazy person or no. He leans over, bracing himself against the chilly night air and the ledge, to grip onto one of those arms and heaves this heavy mass of a man. The other scrambles, straining to get over the window sill. He gives one sharp push in just as he’s climbing over and Eren’s letting go and crashes into Eren’s night stand and all his trophies. The lamp there shutters, shakes and falls over, plug pulling out from the outlet.

“Shit!” They say simultaneously, and Eren finds it only a little weird. He scrambles as best as he can in the dark to his dresser, throwing open drawers in hopes of finding the flashlight his Dad had left there months ago after the lights went out during a late summer night storm.

He hears the stranger, the mental patient in his mind now, move towards him and, completely terrified, throws a hand out, connecting his fist with some part of the other’s body. It feels like maybe it’s his eye and Eren yells at him to stay back.

“Ow, fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuck!”

“Don’t move!” Eren shouts again, voice wavering. For a moment, and he’ll never ever let her know, he sort of wishes his creepy sister Mikasa were home from school. Annoying as hell, maybe a little unstable to boot, sure, but blessed was she nonetheless with agile reflexes and weirdly strong senses.

“I’m not moving, you idiot. Fuck, I can’t see.”

“Yes you were! Stay still!”  He hisses back to the shadows.

Eren’s fingers brush the handle of what he’s been looking for, finally. He snatches it up, fumbling to grip it right and flicks on the switch. A little shaken up, he jumps merely at the _click_ of the light coming on. It shines brightly in front of him and then Eren is looking at a wide green eye. He finds this curious and moves backwards, expands the light so that it’s in the patient’s entire face. The eye is awfully familiar, he thinks, it reminds him of his mother and--

What in actual fuck.

“Now before you freak out,” the man tries.

But Eren has already screamed and he can hear his mother’s footsteps downstairs leaving the kitchen and making her way up to his floor.

“Eren?” She calls and the man is cursing, throwing himself beneath Eren’s bed.

“Don’t say anything!” He hisses from a place Eren can’t see, and Eren, stunned, is still trying to come to terms with everything up till this point so he’s standing there, in his boxers, with his mouth dropped open when his mother throws his door open against the wall. The light from the hallway pours in, casting her in shadow but lighting up Eren’s entire existence. He shields his eyes from the deathly rays and wonders why he struggled for the flashlight when he could have easily gone and opened the door.

“What on earth is going on in here?”

Eren doesn’t know what to say. He stands there, mouthing like a fish. He could explain, he could. But what if he was actually crazy? What if there’s no one here and he shows his mom and she sends him down to Borough Park. Oh, jeez. Goodbye football scholarship, goodbye to his friends and his reputation and just fucking everything and Eren doesn’t want to lose his life, for Christ’s sake.

Maybe he’s being dramatic.

“Er,”

“Would you quit playing around?” His mother asks, impatient now that she sees him like this, “Why are you standing in the dark shouting?”

So, looking sane is already proving to be difficult, then.

“I’m, uh,”

“Oh, forget it,” she sighs turning on her heel, her braid whipping behind her as she mutters something about ‘scaring me half to death’, ‘Dropping him when he was young’ and ‘Sniffing glue’.

Eren doesn’t take offense.

No, instead, he uses the light from the hall to plug his lamp back in and turns it on, letting it chase away the remnants of shadows. As he steadies it, placing it back where it belongs, his eyes are trained on his bed and one hand is held back in a fist, prepared to throw. A leg is out and raised, ready to defend. He waits, hoping, praying that maybe he really had imagined it all because what he saw, who he saw, makes no sense. And, to be honest, he feels like an idiot posing like this.

“You’re still reading these, huh? You know porn exists. The government isn’t checking your internet history, trust me.” The voice calls from beneath his bed.

Eren breathes in, deeply, slowly, lowers his leg  and closes his eyes. Then, he opens his mouth to scream once more but the not-so-stranger has rolled from beneath the bed and tackled him to the ground. He knows this move, and if he was in any right sort of mind then, he’d have known how to dodge it as well. His mouth is covered and, crazy as it sounds, he stares into his own eyes.

“You are so dramatic. Why are we so dramatic?” Eren’s spit image asks.

Except he’s not exactly his spit image but it’s him all the same. He’s definitely older, he’s got facial hair, only around his jaw line which is squarer, surer than Eren’s round one. His hair is longer in its escape from the fitted skull cap he dons and his voice is deeper but it’s him, and Eren thinks his brain has just sputtered and died.

“Are you done being annoying?” He asks, voice gruff. “I can move my hand if you’re done.”

Eren nods his head. The other moves his hand.

“AAAAaaaghhhhmmmph.”

“Kid, c’mon now. I’m trying to explain everything to you but you’re making this really difficult. It’s bad enough _you_ know, I can’t let anyone else figure it out. I didn’t even want to tell you, but you get to know now so please just knock it off and be grateful, huh? Let’s make this easy. Listen up.”

Eren’s eyes are wide as the other takes his cheeks between his hands and squeezes, tilts his head up so that their eyes are inches apart. The guy’s, no Eren’s? The guy-that-looks-like-Eren’s eyes are hard, though one of them is purpling in a painful looking way (Eren’s not sorry), and serious as he raises one finger to his face.

“First of all, you are going to that science fair.”

Eren mumbles his confusion from behind the man’s hand, but the other just squishes his cheeks some more and shakes his head as he tuts.

“No, no, no. Listen to me, I said. You are going to that science fair, you are going to apologize to Armin and you’re going to be there for him. Then, you’re going to ask him on that date you always wanted to ask him on and you are not going to let that stupid Jean guy take him away, you hear me?”

Eren licks the man’s hand, then regrets it as he doesn’t know where they’ve been. He shutters as the guy whips his hand away, glaring at Eren from above.

“Are you insane?” Eren asks, voice barely a whisper. His eyes are wide in disbelief. “What the hell are you talking about?”

He knows of the science fair coming up, of course he does. Armin has been going on about for the past few months, but what the hell did that matter? Eren has never told anyone about his crush on Armin.

“Huh,” he, mirror-Eren says, wiping his hand on his pants and then rubbing at his furry chin thoughtfully. “Am I too early?”

“Too early for what? Who are you? Why do you look like me? Are you going to kill me? Why are you in my room? How do you know all that about—“

“Hey, listen, I said. Did you already fight with Armin? Huh?”

“Why were you at my window? What’s with that ugly hat? Who’s _Jean_ —“

Mirror-Eren is getting frustrated, rubbing at his temples as Eren goes on, face turning red from lack of air as he fires every question he has, trying to wrap his head around the situation. It doesn’t help, he thinks, that this grown man is sitting on his stomach and making it hard for him to breathe deeply. His breaths, because of this and the fact that he might be hyperventilating, quickens and his heart is pounding and he starts to feel dizzy but the other hasn’t noticed.

“Let me back this up,” He says, eyes closed, face intent. “I’m you, and I’m from the future. And I’m here to fix up our shitty life, alright? You ought to be thankful because boy, is it shitty.”

Eren hears ‘I’m from the future’ and he passes out.

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is fun to write, ignore me.


End file.
